The Other Homunculus
by Avrel the Teller
Summary: Oneshot. What if one of Twigleg's brothers has survived? What if he was alive and well? This is the story of Mizell, who lost most of his brothers...and reunited with his last brother.


**Well, I've been reading ****Dragon Rider****...again, and thought of this. So...yeah.**

Everyone here has heard the story of how Nettlebrand ate Twigleg's eleven brothers, am I right? Everyone believes that they are all gone. And when I say everyone, I mean _everyone_. There isn't a soul in the world who believes otherwise. Majority rules, right?

Wrong.

My name is Mizell, and I am one of Twigleg's brothers.

Ah yes, you're probably scratching your head in confusion right now, aren't ya? Lemme guess, you think that there's _no way _I could've survived. Yeah, yeah, I get it. I'll probably get that a lot. Geez. Might as well tell you how I did it.

Out of the twelve of us, I was the oldest. Well, I still am, but as far as I know there's only two of us now. However, I won't stop believing that some of the others survived. Perhaps they're somewhere in the world, hiding from Nettlebrand. Or maybe they gave their hearts to a human and died. I wouldn't know. I haven't seen them for centuries.

Okay, now I'm getting off topic. Let's continue.

So, as you all should know (and if you don't, that's...kinda wrong), Nettlebrand got bored when the silver dragons disappeared. Trust me, you don't want to be near him when he's bored. He went after eleven of us, including me. He ate them one by one (but like I said, they could've survived), until Twigleg and I were the only ones left. He ignored, Twigleg and went after me. I could see, as I ran by him, that Twigleg was looking pretty anxious. As usual. Not that I can blame him. Ten of our brothers had already been eaten and it looked like I was about to be eaten as well.

I saw him cover his eyes while Nettlebrand drew steadily closer to me. Again, I can't blame him. Things weren't looking too good. I personally didn't see much hope. Hey, you wouldn't either if you were being chased by a huge monster dragon who wanted to eat you alive.

Anyway, Nettlebrand was getting a little too close for comfort. If I wanted to, I probably would've been able to count all of the teeth in his mouth. Not too pleasant, knowing how many teeth were about to chomp down on you. Being small does have its advantages, though. I could slip through small spaces, which threw Nettlebrand off for about, oh, five seconds. Then he began to catch up to me again. That guy never gives up.

The situation seemed pretty hopeless until I noticed a small crack in the wall. I ran towards it, hoping to escape. The crack grew closer, as did Nettlebrand. I knew I only had a few seconds to get through the crack and to safety.

I could feel his hot breath on my back, and I could almost imagine the look of victory in his vicious red eyes. "Well, not today," I had muttered to myself. The crack was close.

On I ran. I could tell that Nettlebrand was close. But the crack was close enough now. I had one chance. Taking a deep breath, I dove for the crack.

At the same time, Nettlebrand snapped. He grabbed the sleeve of my shirt, which tore. I fell through the crack and tumbled outside of the castle. As soon as my head stopped spinning, I got to my feet and ran away from the castle. I didn't want Nettlebrand coming after me.

I ran until I could run no more. By then, the castle was out of sight. I had leaned against a tree, panting, when I realized that Nettlebrand might decide to eat Twigleg, too. But it was too late. I couldn't turn back. Not now. Not ever. So instead I walked away, heading for a place where I could leave the past behind.

I walked for who knows how long. Maybe it was two days. Maybe it was two months. I don't know. The only thing that kept me going was the desire to leave the past behind. I didn't want to remember. I didn't want Twigleg's terrified face popping up in my mind. I didn't want to hear Nettlebrand's roars or the screams of my brothers any longer. I wanted to leave that all behind and walk towards a new future. I was willing to forget all of the times when my brothers and I enjoyed ourselves just to remove the pain.

I was willing to forget that I had brothers.

And so I walked, day and night, rain and shine. I walked away from my past, searching for a new beginning. A new life.

A new me.

After a while, I came across the ruins of a castle. I didn't know where I was or how far away I was from Nettlebrand, but I decided to stay. There was water to drink, flies to eat, and a roof above my head. It was all that I needed.

And so I stayed for who knows how many centuries.

That's my story so far. However, it's not the end. I have more to tell, and it's about to happen.

—

I sighed as I woke. Sunlight shone through the windows, caressing the room with its golden hands. My stomach grumbled, and I walked out of the castle, searching for something to eat.

As soon as I left, I heard voices. I was curious. Who could be here? In all of the time I'd been at this castle, no one had ever come. What could've changed.

"Strange castle, isn't it?" came a boy's face.

"It reminds me of my old master's castle, young master," another voice said.

"Twigleg, haven't I asked you to stop calling me 'young master'? I've asked you about, oh, a hundred times."

"Right."

I blinked, sure I was hearing things. Did I hear someone say Twigleg?

I cautiously walked around the castle, following the voices. Soon I came across a group of people. There was two tall adults, a young girl, and a young boy standing there. But what held my attention was the homunculus on the boy's shoulder.

Surely my eyes were playing tricks on me. Surely I was hallucinating, or was still asleep. Because that homunculus looked a lot like Twigleg.

And, of course, at that precise moment, the homunculus saw me. "Young mas-Ben?" her said. "There's another homunculus here."

"What?" The boy called Ben looked in my direction.

Great, now I was in the spotlight. "Yeah, so what?"

"Ben, do you mind putting me on the ground?" the homunculus said. Ben looked slightly confused but nodded, taking the homunculus and placing him down. To my annoyance, the other homunculus started walking towards me.

He stopped a foot away from me. "It's been centuries since I last heard that voice," he whispered. "I can't believe it...Mizell."

My eyes widened. "Twigleg? It that really you?"

The other homunculus, Twigleg, smiled. "Yes," he said. "Yes, older brother, it's me."

I felt tears come to my eyes. My vision blurred slightly. "It's been centuries, and now we're together again."

"I always thought you were dead," Twigleg said. "To see you standing before me, very much alive...It's worth all those years being Nettlebrand's armor-cleaner."

"You know, I almost forgot your voice," I said. "It was painful to remember, and it started to fade...but I know that it's truly you."

"And now we're together," Twigleg murmured.

The tears began to spill from my eyes, and I saw similar ones racing down Twigleg's face. "Nothing will ever separate us."

"We'll be together till the end," Twigleg finished.

I stepped forward, wrapping the other homunculus in a hug. "Till the end."


End file.
